Friday, August 14, 2009

Christopher Caldwell on European 'Identity'

In Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, which I'm still reading, Christopher Caldwell notes with irony the fact that Europe is returning to a sense of self-understanding in part due to the growth of Islam there:

[T]he conditions unifying Europe culturally have not been better for decades, and Islam is part of the reason why. Renewed acquaintance with Islam has given Europeans a stronger idea of what Europe is, because it has given them a stronger idea of what Europe is not. (Page 301)

But this seems to mean less than it seems, if I may put his point paradoxically. Apparently, Europeans mean that "Europe is not Islam." Or "not Islamic." Or "not Islamist." Or not something like that. Europeans are not sure what they genuinely stand for. They're been 'post-Christian' long enough to no longer be certain what Christianity actually means. Culturally, says Caldwell, being 'European' seems to mean little more than holding to "equal treatment of women, racial nondiscrimination, and (perhaps above all) freedom of sexual comportment" as "absolute rights" (312). Not necessarily bad things, I might add.

In terms of "the EU model of belonging," however, one can be even less European:

You are one person for your culture and another for law. You can be an official (legal) European even if you are not a "real" (cultural) European. (307)

As Caldwell notes, one need not even be culturally European! This arises partly due to a radical multiculturalism that refuses to judge among cultures, but also partly due to political compromises. The EU is a multicultural entity, for it unifies various European cultures. This fact makes difficult any 'discrimination' among not only Europeans but also among non-Europeans, who are (naturally) just following their cultures . . . and who can protest about that?

Well . . . perhaps Europeans could, but this sort of cultural development in modern Europe has succeeded among native Europeans because even though they implicitly recognize their Judeo-Christian heritage, they have accepted that "the multicultural nation-state is marked by a state monopoly on moral order" and that "Christians and Jews . . . [will only] worship God privately" (311). This is a risky perspective, thinks Caldwell, because it is comparatively weak, for "Muslims are distinguished by their refusal to submit to this spiritual disarmament" on the part of religion, so if "the multicultural order [should] fall, Islam is the only value system waiting in the wings" (311). Apparently, Islam will not devolve into a 'private' religion.

I think that Caldwell is exaggerating on this issue of a merely superficial European identity. Granted, he's describing what he thinks many Europeans believe, but when I spent a lot of my time in Europe -- roughly from 1986 to 1995 -- I felt that there was more to being a European than subscribing merely to these somewhat narrowly delimited, superficially described rights identified by Caldwell. European identity included not just the Judeo-Christian inheritance but art, architecture, science, philosophy, rationality, law, a culture of discussion, even food and drink, and a host of other things.

But perhaps Caldwell has something less polemical and more substantive to offer on this topic of European identity -- not that he doesn't score points, of course.

10 Comments:

"You are one person for your culture and another for law. You can be an official (legal) European even if you are not a "real" (cultural) European. "

This is true for other countries with large immigrant populations. There are US citizens, and there are Americans.

"I felt that there was more to being a European than subscribing merely to these somewhat narrowly delimited, superficially described rights identified by Caldwell. European identity included not just the Judeo-Christian inheritance but art, architecture, science, philosophy, rationality, law, a culture of discussion, even food and drink, and a host of other things."

Absolutely. I've never been to Europe but have had enough contact with people from around the world to recognize the application of a universal truth to one continent.

Thanks, Sonagi. To be fair to Caldwell on this, I should emphasize that he's criticizing what he takes to be the Europeans' superficial self-understanding, but I think that he's misjudged Europeans on this point.

"European identity included not just the Judeo-Christian inheritance but art, architecture, science, philosophy, rationality, law, a culture of discussion, even food and drink, and a host of other things."

Particularly ironic is that much of what Europe consideres its "identity" comes from Islam! The philosophies, the rationality, much of the "culture"---etc Thus the "inheritance" is actually Judeo-Islamic-Christian!

Agreed, a lot of texts were translated from Arabic starting in the High Middle Ages, and the Europeans certainly drew on Arabic medicine, astronomy, alchemy, and mathematics, as well as some on philosophy.

But this gets complex, doesn't it, for a lot of what was borrowed from the Arabic world was originally an inheritance from Greece and India as well as other non-Arab territories that Muslims conquered.

I'd be the last to downplay the significance of this translating activity, but to call European civilization a "Judeo-Islamic-Christian" one . . . I think that this overstates the importance of Islamic culture on European identity.

I'm afraid "translation work" is only half the story---for example while complex math did come from Greek and Indian civilization---the Muslims advanced them much further---the same can be said about medicine, philosophy, sciences and you might be surprised---theology as well---there was a lot of dialogue between Judaism and Islam. Therefore--Europe is the inheritor of Muslim Civilization and its progress---which it has carried forward to today.---but contributions of the Jewish and Christian scholars of the time of the Muslim Civilization should be respected as well ---which is why I mentioned Judeo-Islamic-Christian.

Anonymous, I guess that we'll just have to disagree on the extent of Muslim influence on European civilization.

I've always argued for the significance of an intellectual inheritance from the Arabic world -- my masters and doctoral exams were in history of science -- but I see limits.

As for theological impact, I don't see that Islam had great impact (other than on the Western adoption of the Muslim Kalam argument on a temporally limited cosmos), for many of the central metaphysical issues were different (and connected to Christology) . . . but I'm willing to listen.

But I think that Judeo-Christo-Islamic Civilization better characterizes the Muslim world than Judeo-Islamic-Christian does the Western.

a very small list of scolars of the time of the Muslim Civilization----Chritian----Johannitius (arab name Hunayn ibn Ishaq)-----Johannes Damascenus (arab name Abu Zakaria)Jewish----Messala (Masha-allah ibn Athari) 8th century astronomerIsaac Judaeus (Abu Yaqub) 10th century physican and philosopherAbenezra (Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra)11th century poet/philosopher

Muslims---Al-Kindi (latin name--Alkindus) 9th century Scientist and philosopher, comenter on Aristotle--wrote 270 books on subjects of mathematics, physics, music, medicine, pharmacy, and geography.Al-Farabi--(latin--Alfarabius) 10th century--scholar and mystic, master of Greek philosophy as well as music--two of his influntial books--The Bezels of Philosophy and The Perfect State.others such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Avverroes), Ibn Bajja (Avempace) are already well known in the west....and many many others.

History of Science---Yes, you mentioned on your profile which is why your comment on "translating activity" intriqued me.

"I'm willing to listen"---Thankyou for your courtesy. ---Maimonides, Sadia Gaon, St Thomas Aquinas---might be of interest---Yes---there was dialogue on metaphysicsResearch into Islam's contributions to Western thought requires a lot of digging. Most Muslims seem to have bought into the argument that "Western" is different/seperate--as have most Westerners.---but then, we are all free to determine our own worldview.

Thankyou for your replies to my comments-----it was a pleasure to visit.

Incidently, by "translating activity," I was referring primarily to translations from Arabic into Latin in the High Middle Ages. I didn't mean to imply that the Arab world had contributed nothing creative. Clearly, it had. One need merely recall algebra, a significant advance in mathematics.

About Me

I am a professor at Ewha Womans University, where I teach composition, research writing, and cultural issues, including the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history.
My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism.
I also work as one-half of a translating team with my wife, and our most significant translation is Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil, which was funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested.
I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries.
Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."